Reconfiguring Radiators
Reconfiguring radiators to make a passthrough There is an enclosed backroom built off of the back of our mid40’s townhouse. Currently the only way to it is through the kitchen which is adjacent to the dining room. The picture here is from the dining room looking at the original exterior wall/window. We would like to…
Reconfiguring radiators to make a passthrough
There is an enclosed backroom built off of the back of our mid40’s townhouse. Currently the only way to it is through the kitchen which is adjacent to the dining room. The picture here is from the dining room looking at the original exterior wall/window. We would like to remove the window, knock out the knee wall, reconfigure the radiators – to provide a direct opening from the dining room instead.
I’m wondering what our options are, assuming this can be done.
The current unit is not attractive.
– if I want to split the heat output (put one unit in the backroom and one unit in the dining room,) what I can buy as replacement? Old radiators (to match the other old fin ones in our house)OR is there any new attractive radiators out there?
If I buy old fin radiators, how do I figure out # of fins to buy?
I imagine I would call a HVAC guy to do this work? Any guestimates as to how much this might cost?
Thanks so much!
cmu, master plbmer, traditionalmod – thanks all for answering.
Instead of dividing the load, I’m wondering if we can ADD LOAD. Traditionalmod brought up a good point. I believe the addition is insulated. (There is no door seperating it from the only way in there now – the kitchen.) And I think I saw bits of fiberglass insul when we took a faceplate off an outlet a while ago. Though I do remember during large wind storms on really super cold days in the winter, it felt like there was DIRECT DRAFTS coming from the can-lights in the ceiling… The previous owner added this backroom in 2000. There is a small 3′ baseboard that was added and it DOES NOT provide enough heat!
Is the enclosed back room original to the house? If it was added later first make sure it’s insulated thus warm enough in Winter before you knock out a wall and open that room to the rest of the house. I understand many add-on sunrooms are not insulated as they were meant only to be summer rooms.
Unfortunately, cmu’s link won’t help sizing your radiator. It’s called a cast iron convector and yours is a rare one.
It doesn’t matter much anyway. If you want to split the load, there are plenty of online heat loss calculators to determine how many BTUs you’ll need for each space. Or any plumber worth his salt, or a good supplier, should be able to size the unit(s) for you.
1- A plumber can do this
2- Charts are available for heat output..check capacity of your current radiator.
http://www.colonialsupply.com/resources/radiator3.htm
3- Divide as needed. Get 2 new (or used) radiators with appropriate capacities. Steam has fewer choices than water. Steam requires more precise placement of radiators and correct pitch of pipes, so less forgiving.
4- Labor cost would depend on how difficult it is to route pipes. Used rads you can get quite cheap unless you want Victorian frou-frou types. New ones – Runtal? $5-600 each maybe.